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Austintown schools showcase robotics programs
By Justin Wier
AUSTINTOWN
Robots were whizzing around the Fitch High School cafeteria Tuesday night during the Austintown robotics program’s open house.
The after-school programs allow students to get hands-on experience with robots as early as second grade.
Richard Zimmerman, a local tool and die maker who started the program eight years ago with Delphi design engineer Michael Mellott, said the programs are self-funded and raise about $30,000 a year.
“We’re trying to let the people and the kids know what we have, what’s available,” he said.
The programs work with the national organization FIRST, or For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology, and students compete at various levels.
Elementary and middle-school students start with pre-programmed Lego sets. High school students participating in the FIRST Robotics competition build 120-pound robots that can perform tasks such as shooting basketballs or climbing ropes, and they do it in six weeks.
Several robots were on display Tuesday night, from small Lego robots on a 4-by-8 sheet of plywood to larger robots moving around the cafeteria floor.
Zimmerman said he wanted to start the program when he was on the school board, but he couldn’t find teachers willing to volunteer the necessary time.
Zimmerman, Mellott and Andy Yantes, a local IT specialist, volunteer about 1,000 hours a year. Between the three of them, they have all the experience necessary to build and program robots.
“We teach, and the kids absorb a little bit every year,” Zimmerman said. “I’m a firm believer in you gotta learn something every day, and I don’t think they’re getting this in the school district.”
Participating programs also have access to $50,000 in college scholarships through FIRST.
Zimmerman said a girl who participated during the first year had never picked up a screwdriver, but she wired the whole robot by the end of the year. Now she’s an electrical engineer who works at Delphi as a subcontractor.
Devin Sigley, a senior at Austintown Fitch, said participating in the program confirmed that he wanted to go into computer science.
“It lets you get hands-on experience with a lot of different areas: mechanical, electrical, engineering, design,” he said.
Sigley handles most of the electrical and programming aspects. As a senior, he said he serves a mentor role as well.
Zimmerman said students grow as they move through the program.
“They’re not quite comfortable [at first],” he said. “But after four years, they make a lot of friends and they learn a lot of things.”